You might have heard a bit about the ‘new normal’, a term being used to describe what the world will look like when we can all go outside without masks on again. A prime example? Shopping, and Under Armour’s here to show us how things are about to change.
The sportswear brand, in addition to having a COVID-mask on the way, has launched its e-commerce platform in South Africa. Big deal, right? It’s just an online store. Right? Actually…
Going through changes
Part of it is certainly an online store, sure. You can click through products and add things to your cart and have them delivered. But that’s not all the service offers, which is just as well because buying online is no substitute for buying in a store. Not really.
It’s sportswear, meaning that it has to fit in order to function at its best. You could go back and forth with couriers but that’s not terribly efficient. Under Armour is changing things up by introducing virtual walkthroughs (via Zoom or another video streaming service), will let buyers book out the entire store so they can browse in safety, or will send someone to your house for a fitting. The company will even do the same for companies, sending a Mobile Shopping Unit to workplaces so staff can get that sweet, sweet fitness gear without being around other people. That’s what the new normal looks like.
New normal
Under Armour SA managing director Gareth Kemp said, “Ecommerce allows a traditional brick and mortar facility to operate within new limits, setting higher benchmarks as we open our product offering to a wider (more techno-savvy) audience. Keeping this in mind we’ve put a fair amount of resource into not only developing an e-commerce platform but ensure we daily implement UX Design and key optimisation strategies.”
These new options aren’t all cheap and T’s and C’s will certainly apply (like a R5,000 deposit when you book out the store) but they all have one thing in common — they’re more convenient, and safer, for shoppers at the end of the day. And they’ll all likely stick around after COVID-19 has passed us by.
